I would just ask yourself what your final goal is. If you plan on keeping less than 2000 per sub down the road, then the BLs will do the job wonderfully and save you some money. Only if you plan on adding more power and doing more electrical upgrades somewhere down the line would I say go for the BTLs.

They will still get loud without fully powering them, but if you intend to upgrade you'll have the room to. To give my own analogy, remember when your mom would buy your shoes a size too big so you'd have room to grow?

Either way I'm sure you'll be happy.

I have run MT's and BTL's in the same enclosure. . . .The BTL's sound better and run way cooler playing music at high power for long periods of time (with the cooling option).

I would overpower a sub than under.

Thats just me.

Because we all know underpowering a sub will blow it. . . .

j/k

I would overpower a sub than under.

Thats just me.

Me too

But when it comes to wasting money buying subs just to upgrade amps a few months later and have to lose money selling the old ones, it makes sense to me to ask yourself what your long term goals are, and if you will ever want 'more'.

I would overpower a sub than under.

Thats just me.

It would certainly fit with what you've said in the past...

But when it comes to wasting money buying subs just to upgrade amps a few months later and have to lose money selling the old ones, it makes sense to me to ask yourself what your long term goals are, and if you will ever want 'more'.

It is not just buying subs that you can push to the limit. . .

BTL and BL's almost have to sound different just because of the way they are built. I wish I had a set of BL's just for comparison. According to the specs, the BTL is just shy of 3 dB louder with 1 watt input. . .

It is about more than if you have enough power to "over power" your sub. The point I am making is that 1000+ watts will power pretty much any sub, and I personally have a pretty good feeling I would choose the BTL over the BL if I was not on a budget just for the way they perform.

Edited March 14, 200817 yr by BKOLFO4

i wouldnt go by that efficiency rating.

Over on RoE, they had this 12" sub grand challenge that a LOT of 12" subs were tested using their proper recommended enclosures and tuning.

Results were odd...

The 12" BTL -

The 12" Q -

Explain that one.

Below 40hz, the Q wangs with half power, excelling over the BTL.

hi im new

but i got a quesiton on these

i was lookin online at ficaraudio.com and they have the specs on them and all,

is the displacement on there the bass you "feel" or is it something else

also, the q series is supposed to be clearer than both correct? will this still be thumping tho? i currently hae a jl13w2-4 (yeah i got it for bday) and i want something waaay better than that

i still want to be able to hear the music tho so im lookin at bl vs q and maybe vs btl if that displacement on there is the excursion or w/e as in the bass u feel

well, if you look at the graph above, the Q just dominates the BTL in terms of power to output.

And displacement... displacement is the amount of volume the sub takes up inside of the enclosure so you know how big to build the box GROSS. You would also need to build a port if going vented but ports are usually user chosen so custom per user so the displacement of the port is up to the user to find out.

well, if you look at the graph above, the Q just dominates the BTL in terms of power to output.

And displacement... displacement is the amount of volume the sub takes up inside of the enclosure so you know how big to build the box GROSS. You would also need to build a port if going vented but ports are usually user chosen so custom per user so the displacement of the port is up to the user to find out.

aighty then,i guess i can save 200$ now, im droppin the btl as an option now ,lol

ty

so now im bl or q, lol and i'll probably up to 18

w8, thats for the 12s correct, wat would the 15 and 18 be? would they be in same ratio or would they differ? due to size and pwoer?

I'm assuming the ratio would be the same.

I stated this before on the 12" BTL that it appears the Fs of the sub affected it's output graph.

Now, i may be totally wrong there but it is coincidental if i am wrong.

The Fs of the 12" BTL is 40 Hz, the Q 28 Hz. But you actually made my point even stronger. . . There is a lot more to look at when selecting a sub than "Do I have the maximum amount of power this sub can handle, because if I don't, it is not worth buying."

Brian

Well looking at those graphs makes me wonder.

I am going about getting a ground pounder / loud DD all wrong?

Based on that graph it looks as though I should go with the Q

But really I dont know, this is one of the reasons why i like doing a/b comparisons in my car.

Pick the subs i like put them in the recommended enclosures, and listen.

When buying subs online the only thing you can do is take the advice / suggestions of others

who have the products.

Basically what I want to do is have a nice ground pounder / loud daily driver.

I would like to be around 150dB preferably higher, but I have to be louder than the 143-144 I'm doing now.

Its just not loud enough for me anymore.

I do like the wow factor that i have now, but i want more

You all are missing the point...as far as the graphical data goes.

We rate the BTL's at 2kw for a reason, a big reason, in industry terms it's the DAF.

Little hint, Meade runs 4kw a woofer..and under his control..is no issue. If your an idiot about it yes you'll break them at that kind of power level.

Thus is why we have the bp power option for the Q, 1kw is about on par for what it needs to have, after about 1200 watts things start to get hairy, which is where the option comes in to play...2kw for the BTL..well that might be quite a bit more conservative than that of the Q. But we rate them so any person should have zero issues with them at all.

Hope this helps...

Thanks!

-Nick

when you say hairy with the Q around 1200 watts,

is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Now i really dont know which route to go..............I'm thinking the BTL is out, i really dont have the power

so now, do i go Q or BL?

too many choices

when you say hairy with the Q around 1200 watts,

is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Bad thing...

Well looking at those graphs makes me wonder.

I am going about getting a ground pounder / loud DD all wrong?

Based on that graph it looks as though I should go with the Q

But really I dont know, this is one of the reasons why i like doing a/b comparisons in my car.

Pick the subs i like put them in the recommended enclosures, and listen.

When buying subs online the only thing you can do is take the advice / suggestions of others

who have the products.

Basically what I want to do is have a nice ground pounder / loud daily driver.

I would like to be around 150dB preferably higher, but I have to be louder than the 143-144 I'm doing now.

Its just not loud enough for me anymore.

I do like the wow factor that i have now, but i want more

Dont get the Q's, you will be disappointed. They still get loud and drop really low but 1500 watts for a Q is too much. Ive never heard the bl's but i heard 2 btl 18s on 1500 watts each and they were way louder than my Q15's on the same power. I dont know what DBs they were hitting but it was really uncomfortable to sit in for too long.

Well it looks like I am going to be getting the BTL's

Unless you guys have any really good reasons as to why I shouldn't????

Now another quick question, if my I find my kicker amps aren't enough power

what would you guys suggest?

Most are happy with sundown 3000s, RF 3000s and 4000s, and I've been pretty pleased with my memphis 4ks.

IA 40.1's are nice too. . .

Where can I get info on an IA 40.1?

They're not listed on the IA website